Tea Party activists arrive with signs and folding chairs at the former McClellan Air Force Base site before the start of the "United to the Finish" gathering in Sacramento, Calif., Sept. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Steve Yeater)

(Newser)
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The 17th Amendment allows Americans to choose their senators directly, rather than have them picked by state legislatures—and some Tea Partiers and a particular jurist named Antonin Scalia want it gone. (He says states' rights have been on the decline since it became law in 1913.) Bad idea, writes Adam Cohen in Time: In state legislatures, “special interests and well-heeled lobbyists call the shots, and state legislators are notorious for not seeing the bigger picture.” Repeal would hand an unfair advantage to elite insiders.

When New York’s state legislature had to pick a state comptroller in 2007, lawmakers made sure it was one of their own. That shows “just how undemocratic legislative selection would likely be,” Cohen notes. “Repealing the 17th Amendment would prevent the little people—in other words, the voters—from having their say. Which is exactly why it is so important to keep it.”

On Nov 2nd 2010 the Americans did pick their Senators and did a pretty good job. Nothing in the World is perfect but the percentages in this election were pretty close to it.Think about it.

DontLikeYou___

Nov 25, 2010 7:57 AM CST

and some Tea Partiers and a particular jurist named Antonin Scalia want it gone. Ah, liberals are so mired in their own shit that they cannot see reality. No one in the TP wants to do this. This is more liberal deceit which they must use because Americans do not like you people. I have a question for all of you liberals. Which came first, your mental illness or your liberalism?

OscillateWildly

Nov 25, 2010 1:14 AM CST

It doesn't matter, our election system...and electorate for that matter is a joke anyway. Let's just leave the people to the real choices they are lucky enough to have been granted: coffee or tea, regular or decaf, fries or a baked potato.